Inspectors were also advised that art and music lessons in Muslim schools can be "restricted", that health and sex education will be taught within Islamic studies and that daily prayers will often "dictate the shape of the school day".

As pointed out to Ofsted by the NSS, the guidance appeared to contradict Department for Education policy, which has made clear that segregation in the classroom should not be tolerated.

In correspondence to the NSS, Ofsted said the briefing note was "currently being updated and should be published shortly once it has been amended."

The National Secular Society welcomed Ofsted's review.

Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "Ofsted inspectors should not be accommodating unreasonable religious demands from groups involved in running faith schools. Doing so normalises practices inconsistent with core values such as gender equality and individual liberty. Ofsted should be ensuring these values are upheld in schools, not facilitating their erosion.

"We also hope the revised guidance will make no allowance for publicly funded religious schools to dilute the National Curriculum and sex and relationships education in order to accommodate religious dogma. To do so would be a betrayal of children's rights."

As supporters of a new Bill aim to see home schooling in England registered for the first time, education and schools campaigner Alastair Lichten says children's independent rights must receive greater...

Yasmin Rehman was among campaigners who recently met Ofsted's chief inspector to discuss veiling in schools. Now, she writes, some powerful Muslims are making sinister efforts to silence her and her fellow...

The latest report into the problems with religious education reiterates the need to start with a fundamental examination of the subject's purpose. But, Alastair Lichten wonders, do the proposals go far...

The ruling that an Islamic faith school's policy of gender segregation is unlawful should force us to have have a broader conversation about the religious segregation and inequality our children face in...